Build Thread The '80 FrankenJeep frame off reassembly

[shum8]

Got a little closer tonight.....

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[gert]

Man that looks sweet


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[gr8dain]

Looks great!

 

[shum8]

Thanky - Funny thing is, the dash is wrapped in vinyl....... I ordered a chunk to check color, liked it and left it. then when I painted everything else, it's a scary close match - to the point I'll probly just leave it.

 

[shum8]

Got a little more done last night. I like adding large pieces to the mix - makes me feel like I'm gettin more done. Added the tailgate and spare carrier.

And I gotta say - the tailgate hinges were a royal PITA! This tub had been converted from YJ to CJ, so there's no captured hardware behind the lower valance for the hinge hardware...... when I dropped the tailgate (back 10 years ago) and loose hardware fell off the back, I didn't sweat it too bad. When I realized there was a single 1" dia hole under each hinge location, I knew reassembly was gonna suck. No way to add a cage to hold a threaded plate and I wasn't gonna cut it up to do so. So, I made a threaded plate narrow enough to fit in the hole from the bottom, painted it, then ran a string thru each bolt hole and out the bottom hole. ( This would be a GREAT time for pics....) Ran the strings thru the holes in the plates, tied that end of each to a hex nut, fed the plate up thru the bottom, and when the strings were pulled tight, the plate was where it needed to be. Pulled one rather firmly, dropped the other out the bottom, snugged a screw up in the empty hole, dropped the other string, bolted the hinge up to the other hole loose enough to move, twisted it enough to pull the threaded plate tight to the tub, dropped the other string, and inserted the other screw. That sounds WAY easier than it was, but it worked. I thought about adding epoxy to the face of the threaded plate to glue it to the inside of the lower valance, but figured with my luck I'd epoxy the screws in place. To prevent that, release agent would be needed and I didn't wanna drag all that out. So I didn't.

The new gasket is rather soft, but still doesn't compress enough for the tailgate to close flush to the tub - I'm hoping time will smoosh it enough as we go. (Yes, that's a proper Jeep building term.) If not, no biggie - can't see it from the driver's seat.

Now, gotta get the steering column put back together and decide for sure what route will be taken to fix this stupid steering wheel.


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[mdeluca]

Sure looks good!!!

Lost track of all the threading and pulling and fumbling, but sounds like it was a PIA.

My gasket was thick too... haven't checked in awhile to see if the gate has flushed up... mine has been on for 6 months now... I had forgotten all about it... dangit.

Those look like the bumpers I just got... I cheaped out and got the Pro Comps... good enough for what I do.

 

[shum8]

Thanks - I still have the old one...... may swap em out.....

I haven’t removed the “crappy” steering wheel grip material yet, but have started on the wood replacement route. I need to remove enough of the old covering to verify inner ring size and diameter, then once I get the channel routed out without screwing it up, I’ll remove the rest of it and finish inletting for the inner ring. I got both halves glued up, and tomorrow I’ll start setting up for the router......

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[shum8]

Those look like the bumpers I just got... I cheaped out and got the Pro Comps... good enough for what I do.

I cheaped out worse than that - I went to a buddy’s house and welded those up from square tube - I’ve had em done for a looooong time..... got my cart before the horse.



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[mdeluca]

Looking forward to seeing your process for getting the radii for the steering wheel...

Your bumpers look great... I just bought a cheap used MIG from a friend to play with. I've got my eye on an affordable 160 amp DC stick unit.

 

[shum8]

Mine is just a 110 Miller - but does what I need. After you buy a welder everything you see needs welding LOL


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[shum8]

Looking forward to seeing your process for getting the radii for the steering wheel...

The inner and outer radii will just be cut with a jigsaw and bandsaw. The routing for the inner steel ring itself will be fun. Haven’t settled on a process yet. Stay tuned LOL



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[gert]

man thats some beautiful wood, thats gonna make for an awesome steering wheel

 

[mdeluca]

The inner and outer radii will just be cut with a jigsaw and bandsaw. The routing for the inner steel ring itself will be fun. Haven’t settled on a process yet. Stay tuned LOL

Do you have a table saw? I've got some thoughts on maintaing a perfect center point for all three cuts if you're interested.

 

[shum8]

Sure - Lets have em...... I was thinking about gluing a strip across the inside of each, drilling a hole in the center, and using that as an anchor point for the router for both the inlay groove and outer radius. The inner radius could be cut that way as well, just not where the spokes are - they'll need a little extra material there....

If you have a better idea I'm all ears - I love easy buttons....

 

[shum8]

Ok - settled on a plan - which is good, as it gives me something to abandon later..... And this is a break from tradition for me. I usually try new stuff (putting dumb ideas into motion) and post it afterwards if it worked, but I decided to throw this out there and we all get to see if it sinks or swims....

After getting the upper and lower halves glued up, I decided to offset the upper and lower halves half way, which oughta be 30 degrees or so. Does two things - keeps the upper and lower joints from lining up, and should make the whole thing strong as hell. Will go together something like this

I plan on rotating the halves over a makeshift router "table" (didn't wanna drill holes in our good router table so I set up a fake one using one we used a couple years ago) so I needed to locate the centers. I glued a piece of wood across the centers and marked and drilled the center hole, which will pivot around a wooden dowel.

To locate the dowel rod centers, I needed to know exactly where the inner steel ring was in the steering wheel, so I used a petrified steering wheel grip removal tool, which, by the way looks remarkably similar to a pair of pliers, and cleaned off two opposing spots to gat a measurement.

Made it this far and packed up and went home.

Before I left, I had to thro a bit of acetone on the walnut - just wanted to see what I was dealing with. The pics are of the glue side, which has a little less figure than the top side, but even this side shows promise.......

If I wasn't such a cheap bastard I would have gotten a nicely figured board long enough to cut all six pieces for either the top or bottom so that all the colors and figure would be similar - but I am one, and these were all left over from various stock jobs. And my wife wonders why I NEVER throw nice walnut away.....


Many of the older wooden steering wheels had rivets to hold the two halves together...... structurally won't need em, but I'll have to decide whether I need em for aesthetics or not......



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[gert]

That’s gonna look beautiful when your done


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[mtnwhlr]

 

[shum8]

Got a little more experimenting done on the steering wheel. Dug out a jig we had used to cut circles a couple years back, so I mounted the router in the plate and drilled three holes - one for the center groove and the others for the inner and outer cuts.

Stuck a dowel in the freshly drilled holes, and used that as a pivot to spin the walnut. I stuck a pencil thru the bit hole and as I spun the walnut I scribed a line at the inner and outer profiles, and also at the inner and outer edge of the groove. And as luck would have it, the outer line was too far out and ran off the outer edges. I just moved the pin a smudge...

Once I got the lines drawn, I went ahead and removed the grip material from the wheel...... Im committed now..... and another stroke of luck - the drawn lines were perfectly round, the wheel not so much. Sanded the pencil lines off, traced around either side of the steel ring, and cut it with a router freehand. Stuck the wheel down in the groove, and it fits nicely. I think I'll just draw the inner and outer surface and see if I can get a router cut to work - otherwise, I'll just cut em on the bandsaw....

No turnin back now.......



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[mdeluca]

This is looking like a good plan... also, better than a solid piece.

 

[shum8]

Yes - I was avoiding end grain at all costs.

Well, I haven't screwed it up yet.... Cleaning the old stuff off the rim was the hardest part. Twisted the bulk of it off with pliers, scraped as much off as I could with a razor blade, then scrubbed the remainder off with the abrasive blocks that came with the Raptorliner kits...... which are pretty aggressive, by the way. Yesterday I cut the grooves for the rim to fit in. Today I set the router plate on edge in the vice, set the pivot dowel in the outer hole, threw one of the blanks on there and cut the outer surface. Turned out nice, so I cut the other.

Once I got the outer profile cut, I didn't feel like doing the math so I set the bit reveal to about a sixteenth of an inch, and started sneaking up on the end of the cuts where the spokes needed more material at the arms.... once the ends were located, I stuck the cut over the bit, rotated the walnut to the limit of the cut and marked the backside with a sharpie. Added arrows to confirm rotation direction, visible from the router side.

Got the inner cuts done,

And here we're ready to start fitting the spokes to the back half...

Forgot to add - the arms of the steering wheel are stainless, and were a bit "cloudy".... scrubbed em with the Raptor sponge using the finer surface.... they look better than new!!


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